Yogyakarta: Prambanan, Borobudur and Malioboro Street

After the jungle in Sumatra, we wanted to see some temples, and we chose Yogyakarta as our temple city. It is close to Borobudur, the biggest Buddhist temple in the world, and to Prambanan, a huge Hindu temple complex.

After our cancelled Lion Air flight from Medan, we only landed at Yogyakarta International Airport at night. There is an airport train to the city that takes around 35 minutes, but the next one wasn’t until 9:30 PM, so we took a taxi and got to the hotel around 9:20 PM.

We stayed three nights at Aveta Hotel Malioboro, in a room with a balcony, right on Malioboro Street. The breakfast was amazing, with so many options that it felt like breakfast and lunch at the same time. The hotel also had a pool, but it closed at 8 PM, too early to enjoy after a full day out.

Malioboro Street

Malioboro Street was an experience in itself. It is packed every day after 6 PM, even on a Tuesday night, when we arrived. What I liked is that most of the people are Indonesians and not foreign visitors, so it was nice to see that Indonesians also travel a lot in their own country.

With so many people, there are also many sellers. They always start the pitch the same way, asking “Where are you from?”, and after you reply, they start selling.

Food and drinks

One thing that surprised us: small convenience stores in Yogyakarta don’t sell beer. We only found it at a bigger supermarket, Toko Progo, and it was expensive compared to the rest of Indonesia.

For food, the best thing we ate in Yogyakarta was the sate klathak at Sate Klathak Mbah Sukarjo, goat satay grilled on iron skewers. I also tried a kopi joss, a local coffee served with a piece of burning charcoal dropped into the glass, at Angkringan Kopi Jos Lik Man, a very simple street stall. In general, the food here was spicier than in the other places we visited.

The Sultan’s Palace and Taman Sari

On our first full day, we visited the Kraton, the Sultan’s Palace, to watch a puppet show. On the way, a man took us to a painting shop, where another man explained how they make the paintings and then tried hard to sell us one. He wasn’t happy that we didn’t buy anything. This seems to be a common trick around the palace, so if someone offers to show you the way, just say no.

The puppet show was in Indonesian, so we didn’t understand anything, but the sounds and the instruments were really interesting. The palace also has some exhibits about the clothes and rituals of the royal family.

From there, we went to Taman Sari, the old water castle of the sultans. It was not worth it for us, as it is just some old buildings and a small pool, so we didn’t spend much time there.

Hiring a driver for the temples

As the temples are far away from downtown and it’s hard to get a Grab back, we hired a private driver for the whole day, so we could go wherever we wanted. I booked the driver and both temple tours a few weeks before the trip, so the whole day was planned around them. Borobudur and Prambanan are on opposite sides of the city, about an hour and a half apart by car, so doing both in one day only works with a car.

Prambanan

The first stop was Prambanan Temple. We left at 8 AM and, after a quick stop for gas, got there early, which was a good time, as it was not that full yet. Prambanan was built in the 9th century and is the largest Hindu temple complex in Indonesia, dedicated to the Trimurti: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

The temple is really beautiful. It’s nice to walk around the smaller temples, and you can enter some of them and see the statues inside. A trainee guide offered me a tour. He spoke good English and told the history of the temple really well, so it was worth it.

There is also a legend behind Prambanan. A prince wanted to marry the princess Roro Jonggrang, and she agreed only if he built 1,000 temples in a single night. When he was about to finish, she had the village women pound rice and light fires so it looked like dawn, and the spirits building the temples fled at 999. Furious, he turned her into stone as the 1,000th. Her statue is the Durga inside the Shiva temple.

One interesting thing about the whole experience is that I don’t think they get a lot of international tourists. There were many school tours, and a lot of the kids waved, wanted to take a picture with me or just shake my hand. Some older women also wanted to take pictures with me. I guess they don’t see many foreigners. People were always surprised when I said I was from Brazil, and they usually laughed and replied with “Neymar!” or something about soccer. It happened at the palace too, where a group of kids surrounded me, all wanting to shake my hand. It was like I was famous.

The same complex has a few other temples. One of them is Sewu, a Buddhist temple, which is really nice as well.

Lunch on the slopes of Merapi

After Prambanan, we went for lunch at Lavana, in Kaliurang, on the slopes of Mount Merapi, one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia. My idea was to see Merapi from there, as the restaurant has a view of the mountain, but it was cloudy, so we couldn’t see anything.

At least we enjoyed the place. It was very relaxing, we drank fresh coconut water, and the food was very good, a little bit too spicy for my taste, as I forgot to ask for it without spice.

Borobudur at sunset

We didn’t go for the sunrise at Borobudur, as it was too early and we didn’t want to wake up that early, but it would be nice. Instead, we booked the sunset tour, even though it costs about double the regular ticket, as this was our only chance to be there.

It was really nice. We went up the temple and walked around the terraces. Everyone gets special sandals to protect the stones, and even though they looked uncomfortable at first, they were fine. It was a very small group, so there was space, and we could take as many photos as we wanted. Our guide, Atin, was very nice and funny and talked a lot about the temple and its history. Borobudur was also built in the 9th century, and what stands out is its size and all the sculptures. If you are planning a visit, note that the temple itself is closed on Mondays.

For centuries, Borobudur was buried under volcanic ash and jungle, until 1814, when Stamford Raffles brought it to the world’s attention. He was the British governor of Java at the time, and later founded Singapore.

The sky was a bit cloudy, but the sunset was still nice. After the tour, they served us dinner, which was a nice surprise.

We got back to the hotel almost at 8 PM, after using every hour we had with the driver. I was just not that happy that he charged a lot more than I expected. I knew I would pay extra for going outside the city, but about 300k IDR in extras for the driver (a surcharge for the extra distance plus his lunch) felt like too much. But that’s OK, because it was still a good deal in general.

What we skipped

There was a lot more on my list that we didn’t have time for:

• Ratu Boko, hilltop ruins close to Prambanan, supposed to be great at sunset.
• The Ramayana Ballet, a traditional dance performance at the open-air theatre in Prambanan.
• A Jeep tour on Mount Merapi, which I really wanted to do, but we couldn’t fit it in with both temples on the same day.
• Jomblang Cave, a vertical cave where you are lowered by rope to see the light coming through the opening.

Leaving Yogyakarta

After Yogyakarta, we went to Mount Bromo. We took a train from Yogyakarta to Surabaya, and then a car from Surabaya to Cemoro Lawang.

After that, we went to Komodo, where we went scuba diving and also did a speedboat tour of the national park.

Final thoughts

The city itself didn’t impress us much, but the temples were the highlights, both nice for different reasons. At Prambanan, you can go inside and see the statues, and the guide gave us a good history lesson. Borobudur stands out for its size and its sculptures. Both are worth the visit, and hiring a driver for the day was the easiest way to see them.

Cheers.